Extending the Florida Pathways 2 Success Partnership to Increase Engagement, Retention, and Success of Low-income Undergraduate and Graduate Students

该项目将通过支持迈阿密戴德学院（MDC）的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。和佛罗里达大学（UF），一所综合性研究型大学。在五年的时间里，该项目将为200名独特的学生提供奖学金：转学前的A.A. MDC生命科学专业的学生;转学后的学士学位微生物学和细胞科学（MCS）专业在UF;或谁正在寻求硕士的学生。在UF的MCS。虽然每个人的时间表可能会有所不同，但全日制学生通常会在每个级别获得长达2年的奖学金（即，同时攻读副学士、学士和硕士学位）。迈阿密戴德学院招收了大量多样化的本科生，转学生更有可能来自STEM历史上代表性不足的群体，包括女性，退伍军人和第一代大学生。因此，该项目有可能大大扩大STEM企业的参与，并确定影响低收入转学生的保留和成功的关键因素。该项目还将通过为攻读学士学位的学者提供在线选择来增加访问。和史密斯通过MCS。在线教育进一步扩大了非传统学生的机会，包括成人学习者，学生家长和来自服务不足地区的个人。通过利用全州范围内的研究设施网络和现有的在线课程为基础的本科生研究经验，无论是在人和在线学者将能够参与教师指导的本科生研究。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。该项目是从MDC和UF之前的S-STEM项目中吸取的经验教训，该项目已向攻读副学士和学士学位的学生颁发了400多个奖学金。项目研究将使用焦点小组，学生调查，机构数据和2018年的现有S-STEM数据，以调查2024年FAFSA的变化如何影响奖学金获得者的资格和奖励金额。该研究计划还将探讨奖学金对STEM的转移，毕业和持续性的长期影响，并确定AA中的障碍和成功干预措施。到BS。转移过程。该项目将由合格的独立评估员进行评估，以确保项目目标的进展，并确定最有效地推动学生成功的项目要素。该项目的成果将通过STEM教育会议，信息网络研讨会和同行评审期刊上的出版物进行介绍。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Miami Dade College (MDC), an HSI that primarily awards two-year A.A. degrees, and the University of Florida (UF), a comprehensive research university. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 200 unique students: pre-transfer A.A. life sciences students at MDC; post-transfer B.S. Microbiology and Cell Science (MCS) majors at UF; or students who are seeking an M.S. in MCS at UF. Although the individual timelines may vary, students who enroll full-time will usually receive scholarships of up to 2 years at each level (i.e., while pursuing associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees). Miami Dade College enrolls a large diverse population of undergraduates, and transfer students are more likely to be from groups historically underrepresented in STEM, including women, veterans, and first-generation college students. Consequently, this project has the potential to significantly broaden participation in the STEM enterprise and to identify key factors that affect retention and success of low-income transfer students. This project will also increase access by offering online options for scholars pursuing B.S. and M.S. degrees through MCS. Online education further extends opportunities to nontraditional students including adult learners, student parents, and individuals from underserved areas. By leveraging a statewide network of research facilities and existing online course-based undergraduate research experiences, both in-person and online scholars will be able to participate in faculty-mentored undergraduate research. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project is informed by the lessons learned from a prior S-STEM project at MDC and UF that has awarded over 400 scholarships to students pursuing associate and bachelor's degrees. Project research will use focus groups, student surveys, institutional data, and existing S-STEM data from 2018 to investigate how changes to the FAFSA in 2024 impact eligibility and awards amounts for scholarship recipients. The research plan will also explore the longer-term impacts of scholarships on transfer, graduation, and persistence in STEM and identify barriers and successful interventions in the A.A. to B.S. transfer process. The project will be assessed by a qualified independent evaluator to ensure progress toward project goals and identify elements of the project that most effectively drive student success. Results of this project will be made available through presentations at STEM education conferences, informational webinars, and publications in peer-reviewed journals. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.